3. Will Movie World's White Christmas Draw the Crowds?

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This morning a Gold Coast Bulletin article revealed a lot as to what is in store next year at the parks. Now we already know that WNW is getting 4 aqua loops but this article starts some rumours about the other parks as well as some more information about WNW. The aqua loops are set to open by September and feature a smaller sized aqua loop. They claim Movie World will host a white christmas, Sea World will open a water related kids attraction (for kids aged between 5 and 12), Dreamworld will 'relaunch' one of their Big 6 in July & add another multimillion dollar attraction to add to the Big 6 and WhiteWater World will look at completing Phase 2 (actually 3) expansion. I thought I'd put up a series of polls to see what everyone thinks.

Gold Coast theme parks in ride warby Lucy Ardern and
Tanya Westthorp
THE Gold Coast's theme parks are gearing up for a multimillion-dollar tug-o-war over visitors in 2010, with major expansions planned along with new rides and shows.
As holiday crowds pour through the gates this week, park bosses are looking at maintaining their competitive edge next year as Melbourne and Cairns expand their theme park offerings, tempted by the near six million annual visitors to Movie World, Dreamworld, Sea World, Wet'n'Wild and Whitewater World.
Wet'n'Wild will open Australia's first multimillion-dollar Aqua Loop, which releases people trap-door style into four see-through water slides.
Plans to create a white Christmas next year at Movie World with snow falls and a million Christmas lights were also detailed, along with a new themed attraction at Sea World for children aged between five and 12.
Dreamworld has flagged a major relaunch of one of its big thrill rides in July 2010 and is also in negotiations to get another multimillion-dollar attraction to add to its Big Six thrill rides.
Warner Village Theme Parks chief executive officer Tim Fisher said the Aqua Loop would be open in time for the September school holidays.
"It will be the only one like it, with four loops," said Mr Fisher.
Warner Village owns Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild.
Movie World business unit manager Bob White said a smaller version of the Aqua Loop would also be constructed for those who wanted to 'make sure they were up for it' before climbing on board the new water slide thrill ride.
Mr Fisher would not go into detail about the plans for the new Sea World attraction, but said it was 'water related' and was a 'multi-million dollar investment'.
"It will appeal to families with younger children -- we felt that was something that was missing," he said.
Sea World this week unveiled its new Sea Viper rollercoaster -- a revamp and rebadging of the former Corkscrew ride.
Dreamworld spokeswoman Shelley Winkel said there were also plans to expand the park into some of its 4ha of spare land.
"We are going to do a major relaunch of one of our signature rides with a lot more power put back into it," she said. "There's also talk of a major new ride ... we are still in negotiations about that.
"When White Water World opened there was always a plan for phase two expansion but then the GFC (global financial crisis) hit, so depending how business goes, that is something we will also look at again ... we've still got heaps of land."

They need to deliver on thrills says critic
An avid theme park expert has warned the Gold Coast tourist attractions they have to deliver on their promise of new fun at the parks.
ThemeParkNewsDirect.com editor-in-chief Ashley Irvine is one of the most prolific commentators on theme parks in Australia.
He said the Aqua Loop was rumoured as the next big attraction for Wet'n'Wild.
"That has been the talk on all the internet forums," he said.
He expected Movie World bosses to keep a close eye on the development of the Universal Studios theme park in Singapore that was due to open early next year.
"This will probably give them a few ideas and could be a bit of a wake-up call for them," said Mr Irvine.
There had been more hype with new attractions than real excitement offered.
"They really need to do something to excite the audience," he said.
Warner Village Theme Parks CEO Tim Fisher said current attendance numbers were up on last year and the theme park season had started strongly after Christmas.

The rest of the article speaks about the new Narnia Studio tour, MTV plugs in as well as Kasey Chambers and Sam Clark performing at WNW and MW over the holidays.
So what do you guys think?

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im going to say that the ride at dreamworld getting the major revamp is going to be Tower of Terror. only reason being that when they say putting more power back into it. Tower of Terror is an older ride that of late has had a few issues and has seemed to lack power. its been there a while so its probably due for a major revamp now. be great if dreamworld got a new thrill ride as well.

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DW:
TOT needs a revamp to include a preshow again, even if its just queue theming again.
however, the ride that needs it more than anything is the Cyclone. Hopefully they will re-do the queue building and get that running again with the queue on the inside again since we all know about WWW by now.
Having said that, Wipeout is old and might just get a mechanical revamp and have some new moves programed into it
oooooh wait, maybe they will make MDMC a decent ride!

Edited December 30, 2009 by reanimated35

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Thanks very much for posting the article themparkgc! Looks like it's going to be a good year for the parks. I'm surprised that they have revealed so much, particularly WnW who have come out and said exactly what they're getting. Normally they are more secretive so I'm glad they've opened up a bit.
In regards to Dreamworld I would be VERY surprised/impressed if they refurbed an existing ride as well as add an entire new ride and expanded the waterpark all in the one year. I guess it's not completely impossible though. I'm glad to hear they are going to upgrade/refurb one of the big 6... as we all know it's much needed. No doubt this will start much discussion about which ride it's going to be. I had a similar thought process to remanimated35. I figured from what they said it might be Tower of Terror. If this ends up being correct I seriously hope they re-paint and fix up the tower as part of the upgrade - it looks terrible at the moment. I also thought Wipeout was a possibility as I believe they have had some mechanical problems with it? And then there's Motocoaster which is a failed ride in desperate need of a re-work. I doubt they'd doing anything to it though considering how new it is

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Dreamworld: Im hoping that its the Tower Of Terror that is getting the Make-over. It lacks power.
I like how they say they are in Negotiations with a new Thrill ride. I have no idea what it is. But I hope its big. They also said this "Dreamworld spokeswoman Shelley Winkel said there were also plans to expand the park into some of its 4ha of spare land." so that could be promising.
Seaworld: Im thinking this will be similar to one of those rides where you sit in a boat & have to shoot the targets with water canyons & you will get wet. Just a guess.its family & for kids. I heard some news that they are gutting the Waterpark, It hasn't been popular since they charge $5 when your in the park to enter & there is alot of land there where they can develop.
Wet n wild: it confused me when they said it will involve 4 loops. I dont think its possible to go down 1 slide & around 4 loops in the one time, in the article they make it sound like that.
What you guys think? I just heard its 4 Aqua looped slides. but now when they say there will be a miniature one, Im not sure whats coming.

Edited December 30, 2009 by mattcrombie

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I can tell you that the ride overhaul has been in the works for quite some time. You will be pleasantly surprised with what they have planned from what has been hinted at me. I am unable to go into specifics as I have not been told exactly what they plan to do. But I have been told the Tower of Terror will be restored to it's former glory.
Also I would much rather Dreamworld be spending their money overhauling major attractions like this, and returning them to their former glory than spending the money on new attractions just yet. It seems that we finally have a CEO that has his head screwed on!
All I can say is... BRING ON 2010!!

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In relation to: "As holiday crowds pour through the gates this week, park bosses are looking at maintaining their competitive edge next year as Melbourne and Cairns expand their theme park offerings, tempted by the near six million annual visitors to Movie World, Dreamworld, Sea World, Wet'n'Wild and Whitewater World"
Am i missing something here, or when they say melbourne is this refering to Luna park as gettin a revamp?

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^Dunno, maybe they never got the news that African Safari World was canned?
Ill dot point this post since I can't be bothered making it flow.
- I think its good the parks are getting back into the swing of things given the relatively quiet year we've had. Damn you GFC. Thank god WWW is deciding to finally begin competing again.
-I think it would be 4 slides, not one slide with 4 loops, because the tower would have to be massive to make it all the way around, and if it were only one slide it would have low capacity.
-As for the smaller version to give people the chance to see whether they are up to the main attraction, well at IAPPA at the Whitewater West booth they had this thing on display:
(Source: http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo...43&pageno=2 )
It has the trap door, but the drop isn't huge. Then again that could just be a tech demo type thing.
-As for the SWs kids water attraction, well a splash battle was the first impression I got too.
-As for DW's ride revamp, while I would love for a "lot more power put back into" Motocoaster to make it not suck, I think the evidence points to TOT. The other rides don't have a lot of scope to be reworked (Well, they could put stand up seats on GD maybe)
-But the promise of a major new ride at DW is what has me interested, it's what they have been sorely needing for a long time now, and they are due for their next big thing. Lets hope they just choose something proven to be good, rather than yet another gimmick.
-The white Christmas at MW sounds quite cool actually (pardon the pun), I'd like to see MW surge ahead with their special events.

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Trust me, from my experiences at Six Flags Over Georgia and Gronalund - not awesome for your balls.
The one at Gronalund leans you right over, if they had something like that at Giant Drop's height, people would die of fright but I'd be on it for sure.

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I think it would be a great move on the part of DW if they did a complete overhaul of the ToT and Drop including full refurbishment/re-painting of the tower, new theming and queues fixed up, new carriages for Giant Drop and a revamp of Tower of Terror with improved acceleration and higher peak reached. They truly are DW's signature attractions and are getting ooold so some much needed TLC would be justified

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Yeah, I'd agree with that; the tilting seats are great, but the standup floorless ones are bloody uncomfortable. They hurt on a a tower less than half the height at Drayton Manor; I reckon they'd be a seriously bad idea at Dreamworld.

Sea World is the number one theme park for Australian pre-school aged children, so it was important for us to choose a brand that would fit with our philosophies but would also appeal to that age group.

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It all sounds like an exciting list of additions coming to the parks for 2010 but I can't help but feel disappointed if a xmas lights display and show are all that's in store for WBMW this year. If a major new attraction is greenlit for DW, surely MW will follow suit? Afterall it will have been 5 years since superman opened come this boxing day.
As per usual I am keen to see a refresh of the Batman Adventure and the Looney Tunes River Ride but unless they are MAJOR changes that are heavily billed and advertised, I don't expect they would have much of an impact at the turnstiles. The main reason no doubt why they haven't addressed these two areas as yet.
I am sure the significant increase in attendance at WBMW of late offers a need to expand and not just replace. Especially with such an obvious void of attractions at the back/western area of the Park.
I am hoping they are just playing their cards close (as per usual) and waiting to see how things pann out with DW's plans before releasing details on something truly exciting

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If a major new attraction is greenlit for DW, surely MW will follow suit? Afterall it will have been 5 years since superman opened come this boxing day.

Isn't Batwing a major attraction? It's only been 3 years since it was installed. But I know what you mean, a new coaster might nearly be due... Or maybe they could fix Lethal Weapon so it doesn't give you a mild concussion?

If thats true and everything else goes ahead, then this year might very well be the best year in Australian theme park history.